The McPhersons were brothers. The 'interlopers' in the Killie
side were McAllan (Camlachie, Glasgow) and Busby (Alexandria,
Dunbartonshire).

The non-Ayrshiremen for Rangers were Dickie (Rhu, Dunbartonshire),
Drummond (Alva, Clackmannanshire), Gibson (Larkhall, Lanarkshire)
and Neil (unknown, but as his first club was Ashfield, probably Glasgow).

Q Scotland will enjoy the backing
of at least one Italian in the forthcoming World Cup match, as Gabriele
Tox explains: "I found your e-mail address on the RSSSF website.
I am Italian, but a Scotland National team supporter. I am updating my
archive of Scotland international matches, that I built thanks to the
huge work of Mr. Alan Brown (RSSSF), the help of other members of RSSSF
and many hours spent by myself at the National Library of Florence. During
my searches to update my archive I found two of Scotland's international
matches in 1946 against Belgium and Switzerland, that are not stated on
the RSSSF archive of Scotland matches, but they are stated on the Scottish
Football Association archive.

For updating these two matches, I would like to know which were the
teams the Scottish players were actually playing for at the time of those
two friendly matches.

A (For the benefit of those who
don't know the names mentioned by Gabriele, the RSSSF
is the body which gathers statistics on the game across the globe and
Alan Brown is a Scottish football historian who has posted a lot
of historical information on their site. Alan's own site can be found
here).

I think the reason these games do not appear on Alan Brown's list is that
they are 'unofficial' and appearances in them do not count as international
'caps.' This is because the official resumption of Scottish football after
the second world war wasn't until August 1946 and these games were in
January (Belgium) and May (Switzerland).

In addition to these matches there were also 15 wartime games against
England and one each against Northern Ireland and Wales which are also
unofficial. There were also two games v England and two v Ireland in 1919
which come into the same category.

Players and clubs for the two games in question are listed below. Brown
and Delaney are the same players in both games but had changed
clubs between playing Belgium and meeting Switzerland.

Scotland v Belgium, Hampden Park, 23 January 1946.
The match finished 2-2. Delaney scored both goals, one a penalty. The
attendance was 48830.

Q From Alan Sheridan: Do
you have the goalscorers & the goalscoring sequence when Alloa
Athletic drew 4-4 with Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the
Challenge Cup Final in 1999 & then won 5-4 on penalties?

Q Chris Archer has a few Tannadice-oriented
queries starting with this.Which former Dundee United goalkeeper
has managed Dundee FC and Blackburn Rovers?

A It was Don Mackay

Q Also from Chris: Which
Dundee United striker of yesteryear played for Dundee United, Dundee,
Hibs, and Hearts? And finally Dundee United last played
a game on Christmas day at Tannadice on December 1971 but who did they
play?

A The player you're looking for is
Alan Gordon who also played and scored when Dundee United beat Dunfermline
Athletic 3-2 at Tannadice on Xmas Day 1971.

Q Two queries from Gary Neile.
The first Scottish Match I ever saw was ST JOHNSTONE v KEITH,
a Dewar Shield Semi-Final at Muirton Park, Perth. Saints won 3-0, but
I have long since lost my Programme and match report and wonder if anybody
can tell me the Team Line-ups, Scorers and Match Attendance?

A This was on November 13th 1968.
The St Johnstone team was Donaldson, Beatson, Argue, Gordon, Smith,
Miller, Aird, McPhee, Rennie, Hall, Aitken. All the goals came from
Gordon Rennie who scored a hat-trick. Sorry, I have no information
on the Keith line-up or the attendance though this would be very low,
around 1,000 or less being common at this time for this competition.

Q Also from Gary Are you able to tell me attendances
for the following two games? I was at both, but somehow never recorded
the crowd figures in my own records.
Queen of the South 0-2 Clyde - 07.01.1995 - Scottish Cup Round Two
Queen of the South 0-3 Clyde - 02.09.1995 - Scottish League Second Division"

A It was Willie Thornton who
held the job for nine years, leaving the managerial job at Dundee to take
over at Firhill when incumbent Davie Meiklejohn died in August 1959 and
departing for Ibrox as assistant to Rangers boss Davie White in September
1968.

Q Tan Yong Song has two questions
on cross-border movesWhat is the name the Scottish league team
that used to participate in English non leagues and joined the Scottish
League few years ago and can you tell me the English Club that currently
plays in the Scottish League?

A You're thinking of Gretna who
joined the Scottish League in 2002 after many years in English football
and Berwick Rangers who have played in the Scottish League for
over a half a century and the Scottish Cup for even longer.

Q Scott Mason harks back to the dramatic
last day of the 1985-86 season. Who scored the third goal
for Celtic against St Mirren last day of the league (5-0)1985-86?

A It was Mo Johnston. The scoring
sequence was McClair, Johnston, Johnston, McStay, McClair.

Q Alastair Hay inquires about a testimonial.
Can you please give details of the testimonial match played for
Rangers' player James 'Fister' Walls in the early 1920s? (I think
it was Rangers vs Newcastle United). Date, score and approximate attendance
if possible.

A Rangers met Newcastle six times
between 1921-25, three of which were testimonials. As Walls' last season
was in 1923-24 then the most likely match is the one played at Ibrox on
April 7th 1925 which Rangers won 1-0. I'm sorry I don't have any crowd
details.

The two other testimonials between Rangers and Newcastle during this time
were both at Ibrox, on April 26th 1921 (0-0) and April 25th 1922 (1-1).

Q Two questions from Robert HosieWhen was the last time Celtic and Rangers played [not against
each other] on a Saturday afternoon at 3 pm?

A The last time (and the only time
so far this season) was on Saturday August 14th 2004 when Rangers
played Livingston at Ibrox and Celtic met Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

Q Robert also has this poser. Why
was Sergei Baltacha's son allowed to play for Scotland Under-21s?
At least I think it was his son."

A It WAS Sergei Baltacha's
son who played for the U-21s while he was with St Mirren. I can think
of a few reasons as to why he was eligible. Possibly his father became
a naturalised British citizen in which case his children would presumably
follow. I don't know if that's the case or not but it's one possible answer.

The second is simply that he acquired citizenship through domicile. There
are plenty of examples of sports stars who were born elsewhere but came
to the UK as children and later represented this country, often at the
highest level. Joe Bugner and Frank Bruno spring to mind. At the other
extreme there have been others who have changed countries simply because
they saw a more lucrative future elsewhere. I would say Zola Budd and
Greg Rusedski come into this category (though in these instances they
were reliant on rules concerning parents and grandparents).

In all these cases though the people involved had to take out British
nationality and Baltacha must either have done so or acquired it from
naturalised parents.

Baltacha's younger sister Elena is (for what it's worth) the top ranked
British women's tennis player.

Tennis in fact is a particularly good example of players switching nationality.
Martina Navratilova represented both Czechoslovakia and the USA for instance.

As the younger Baltacha was aged nine when his father moved to Ipswich
and not quite eleven when his dad moved to St Johnstone and as he then
grew up in Perth and Inverness as his father spent the rest of his career
playing and coaching in Scotland then it seems to be only natural that
the Sergei junior would lean towards representing Scotland if given the
choice.

Even if he is a British national, as he wasn't born or had parents born
in any of the constituent parts of the UK he would have been eligible
for any of the home nations. This also applies to players like Matt Le
Tissier, born in the Channel Islands of parents who were also Channel
Islanders who, in theory, could have been selected by Scotland, Wales
or Northern Ireland.

What makes it more confusing is that when Baltacha was born (1979) and
also his sister (1983) the Ukraine was still part of the USSR and I think
there is an agreement in force which allows those born in the USSR to
represent not only the country of their birth and/or residence but ANY
of the successor states to the Soviet Union. As it's highly unlikely that
anyone from Latvia, say, would be desperate to turn out for Turkmenistan
this is in effect an opportunity for Russia to scoop up the most promising
athletes.

Having said all that I assume the real reason he played for Scotland
at U-21 is that out of all the countries he was eligible for, we were
the only ones who thought he was any good!